A switching device of this kind is disclosed in EP 2 645 391 A1, for example. This publication discloses a flexibly elastic and electrically conductive snap dome that is attached to a thin-walled body. The snap dome and the body are firmly mounted on the surface of a circuit board, on which at least one electrical switching contact is provided which projects from the circuit board in the direction of the snap dome.
When the snap dome is pushed through, a short circuit is created between the two switching contacts by means of which an electrical signal can be generated and converted into an electrical switching signal by means of an evaluation and control device.
Switching devices of this kind have proven themselves effective in practice, although they do suffer from the disadvantage that they can exclusively be used in electrical devices that occupy a correspondingly large space on the circuit board, since it is necessary for a switching device to be able to be installed. The switching device and the circuit board require a specified amount of space.
Moreover, attaching the body and the snap dome onto the circuit board often proves problematical, because switching devices of this kind should be used in environments in which there is contamination present in liquid or gaseous form which penetrates between the body and the circuit board in the direction of the switching contact, contaminating it, effecting a corrective influence or damaging it in other respects.
Moreover, manufacturing switching devices of this kind is exceedingly cost-intensive because it is necessary for there to be several stages of manufacture in order to produce the switching device and fix it to the circuit board.